Question

What are some various sources of stress and how do they relate to a criminal justice organization. What are some consequences of stress and how do they affect criminal justice personnel. How might a criminal justice manager address the problem of stress?

Answer 1

Police stress arises from several features of police work. Alterations in body rhythms from monthly shift rotation, for example, reduce productivity. The change from a day to a swing, or graveyard, shift not only requires biological adjustment but also complicates officers’ personal lives. Role conflicts between the job—serving the public, enforcing the law, and upholding ethical standards—and personal responsibilities as spouse, parent, and friend act as stressors. Other stressors in police work include:

1. Threats to officers’ health and safety.
2. Boredom, alternating with the need for sudden alertness and mobilized energy.
3. Responsibility for protecting the lives of others.
4. Continual exposure to people in pain or distress.
5. The need to control emotions even when provoked.
6. The presence of a gun, even during off-duty hours.
7. The fragmented nature of police work, with only rare opportunities to follow cases to a conclusion or even to obtain feedback or follow-up information.

This focus on health and wellbeing builds on previous NIJ research, including a 1996 initiative to create a law enforcement stress program. On the basis of almost 100 interviews with experts in mental health, policemen and cops, the report provided constructive suggestions that can help any police or sheriff's department alleviate the heavy stress experienced by so many officers.

A project supported by the NIJ in 2000 examined the great stress of corrections officers and noted that, apart from understaffing, overtime, shifting, and poor public image, officers were also confronted by work-related stress, including a threat of prison violence and actual violence in their prisoners. The report said that many correction officials don't respond to their home telephones because it could be the institution that requires overtime.

In 2005, the Police Foundation focused on the impact of shiftwork on police officers, which remains a serious problem throughout the police. The NIJ study analyzed the length of shifts, the effect of double shifts, and other factors leading to tiredness and physical problems for police.

Research on shifting and exhaustion sponsored by the NIJ in 2012 found that shifting not only increases stress but also leads to sleep problems, obesity, heart issues, sleep apnea, and growth in the number of snoring officers. This study, carried out by John Violanti at the State University of New York in Buffalo with the School of Public Health, also found a connection between PTSD and increased rates of depression and suicide. Brain mediation due to sleep deprivation and fatigue can also influence suicidal thinking, the report of Violanti said.

Although many of these initial studies were important, they did not form part of a coordinated NIJ program to study systematically the health and wellness impact of stress.

"So in 2016 NIJ scientists have come together to formulate a global health and security strategy with the taxonomy of the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control," said William Ford, head of the research division at NIJ 's Office of Science and Technology.

The emphasis on using scientific tools to achieve physical indicators for stress and fatigue is new to law enforcement studies, Ford said, and we want to develop data for other research. We want to translate stress-related research into the community of criminal justice.

Police officers have been exposed to pressure from law enforcement officers at high blood pressure, insomnia, increased levels of destructive stress hormones, cardiac problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide.

UB researchers are now undertaking one of the first major inquiries into how the intensity of police work affects the physical and mental health of an officer, funded by a grant from the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH), of $1.75 million.

The National Justice Institute added $750,000 to the analysis to assess police officer exhaustion and safety and efficiency impacts of shifts.

The study, called the Buffalo cardio-metabolic occupational police stress (BCOPS study), is the main researcher John M. Violanti, Ph.D., research associate professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at the School of Public Health and Health Professions of UB.

To date, more than 400 police officers and 500 researchers have participated in the report. In addition to measures of bone density, body structure, MRI of brachial and carotid arteries, salivary cortisol tests, and bloodstream, the clinical test includes questionnaires on behaviors and psychological factors such as depression and PTSD. The officers often use a small electronic system to calculate the sleep quantity and consistency during a normal police shift.

Results of the pilot studies conducted in Violanti indicate that, amongst other results, officers over 40 years had a greater 10-year risk of heart disease relative to national average; 72% of women officers and 43% of men had a higher level of cholesterol than the prescribed ones, and police officers as a group had a higher pulse and diastolic pressure than normal.

"Police is a dangerous, high-demand workplace that is psychologically stressful, workplace ambiguities, human misery and exposure to death," said Violanti, a 23 years old New York State Police Veteran. "We expect the evidence from this research to lead to police-centered strategies to minimize disease risk in this stressful occupation."

Cortisol measurements, known as "stress hormone," are used by Violanti and colleagues to determine whether stress is associated with physiological risk factors that can lead to serious health problems, such as diabetes and cardiovascular illness.

"It opens up a person to disease when cortisol gets dysregulated by chronic stress," said Violanti. "The body has become physiologically unbalanced. The organ has been attacked and the immune system is compromised, too.

The two most recent studies in the investigation report on the effect of shifting work on the stress and risks of suicide in policemen and differences in stress between men and women and potential signs of cardiovascular disease.

Results of the pilot research study of 115 officers randomly selected showed that suicidal thoughts were higher for women who research the day shift and for men who work the afternoon/night shifts. The findings appear in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine's October issue online.

The data showed that 23% of men and 25% of women officers reported more suicidal ideas than the general population (13.5%). Violanti found in a previous report that the rates of suicide of the police were three times higher than in other municipal employees.

The results were shocking, Violanti said, that female officer who worked day shifts are more frequently related to depression and suicide, whereas men who worked afternoon or evening shifts are more related to PTSD and depression. "We thought that midnight shifts would negatively impact both men and women officers.

"Women may feel more uneasy and stressed during a daytime shift, where conflict and a negative environment may arise," he said. "The higher suicide ideation reported by male people during the midnight transition, on the other hand, can partly be due to a stronger need to form part of the social cohesiveness of peers in the police organization.

"There is also the question of a physiological disturbance of circadian rhythms. Waking up all night while sleeping may have a double barrel stress impact on judgment and decision-making."

Violanti plans a longitudinal study of shift work impacts on officers and has been provided with additional NIOSH funding for the study of the impacts of shift work on cancer risk.

Stress and blood vessel reactivity studies have shown that females have higher levels of cortisol during waking and stay elevated all day long. Cortisol is usually the highest in the morning and decreases in the evening to a low point. These constantly high levels of cortisol were associated with lower arterial elasticity, which is a cardiovascular disease risk factor. This research is published in the field of psychiatry.

Again, Violanti said these findings reflect the impact on women officers of police work. "From the point of view of the fact that women police officers are probably more under stress than men. It is still basically a male occupation, and women can feel socially isolated in the workplace.

Publication and studies of stress can't change police services overnight, Violanti admits, but one way of sending a message is to recognize, de-stigmatize, and deal with the negative effects of stress.

"There is a need for intervention to help officers deal with this difficult and stressful job," he said. "We wish to teach them how to survive the 25 years of policing and how to relax, how to think differently about what they experience as police officers, such as post-traumatic growth. People can grow positively and become better policemen and people after surviving the trauma of police action."

Police officers are sometimes exposed to a high level of pain that can adversely influence their ability to perform. Consequently, police departments expend a lot of time and money on carrying out background checks and mental examinations of police applicants. These are the unique and stressful circumstances that officers are frequently exposed to during their careers. Besides the recruiting of police officers, police forces, and agencies play a significant role in ensuring the safety and wellbeing of officers. Resources are often overlooked by the complex and dynamic factors police administrators use every day for officers who routinely experience traumatic events in the field. Employee assistance programs (EAP) are an important tool for police officers. EAPs are relevant and should be encouraged by law enforcement agencies. Since all officers are different and not all will be taken to their police department if they are unable to sleep or if their life is affected by stress, police officers through their department should be given several choices. Officers with trauma should be encouraged to tackle the problem. We might ask for medical support, but research has shown that police officers usually refuse psychiatric treatment outside the country.
1) Train the Supervisor: Training field supervisors to recognize adverse stress reactions and signs of chronic stress enable them to identify trauma or problems associated with stress in their subordinates. They will also provide services and assistance to distressed officers, including a change in zone assignment, time off for addressing acute stressors, or structured assistance, for example professional counseling.

2) Hold Subordinate Supervisor Meetings: Managers could retain supervisor-subordinate conferences, connected with quarterly job evaluation, where static stretching is discussed. Speaking about stress management during employee reviews gives the qualified supervisor the opportunity to encourage an honest discussion of any subordinate stress issues.

3) Align the strength of the officers with their assignments: Police administrators can match the strengths of officers with their specific tasks. It would be impractical to accommodate every preference of an officer. However, putting officers in areas or road patrol positions will decrease stress and have a positive long-term effect on officers.

4) Support for Families Police: Police departments and organizations should show their support for police families as a means of alleviating tension. They should facilitate support organizations where officers' spouses can either be supported by the same agency or by neighboring agencies.

5) Create an incentive framework: Police should create opportunities to encourage the mental health of officers. Such opportunities may include teaching stress management classes, taking part in a duty-free workout, or stress-reducing exercises such as yoga.